Sorry. It's been forever- and I really have only one excuse, and it's that I've been lazy.
I wasn't really going to right just now, but I did. I wrote something saddish because I just finished one of those incredibly sad/ happy books. (The Ghost's Child. Don't read it if you don't want to cry.)
Anyways, anything here from Airborn belongs to Kenneth Oppel. I do switch POW's once.
Benjamin's mind is filled with flashes of white.
How he wished his granddaughter was here. Though she was young yet, Kate always understood his fascination with all things living and wild. Two peas in a pod, some would say. But it had always been completely out of the question. For once he had sided with her parents, insisting for Kate to stay home.
Flipping out his journal, Benjamin decided write another entry. He did not particularly want to, but Kate wouldn't be pleased if he stopped now.
19:35
They're departing. Would like to follow, but they're too fast. With the tailwinds , I would estimate eighty knots. Amazing creatures.
Gone now.
Weather changing.
*****
Lightning flashed and thunder boomed. No wonder the creatures had departed. The Endurance was not enduring well at all. No matter what Benjamin did in attempts to keep dry, the rain that came down like daggers sluiced through his jackets and tarps. He took shelter in his cabin. His body became cold and feverish and shivery.
Whenever the sun decided to shine past the clouds, Benjamin would fumble with his pencil and draw. There was writing that he could not remember having wrote. The words blurred and ran down the pages. He saw death herself flutter before his diseased eyes, along with monsters gross and disgusting in comparison to his lovely flying panthers.
Benjamin's tired body was finally forced into sleep.
*****
Groggily, his eyes blinked open. His body felt weak. But Benjamin Molly was no longer in limbo between the Endurance and living nightmares. His fumbling fingers un-cinched his rucksack, searching for any remaining food. There were scraps.
Leaning against the side of the basket, Benjamin closed his eyes and rubbed at his forehead. When he was sick, he had seen death.
Now, when he opened his eyes, he saw salvation.
An airship.
Chance leaped in his heart and Benjamin scrambled for his journal. He only paused for a second to stare at the bizarre beings that were drawn there. Strange.
He wrote only one hurried sentence.
Airship in the distance. Will signal for help.
*****
Then I saw it.
Or didn't see it. Because at first all I noticed was a blackness where stars should have been I raised my spyglass again and, with the help of the moon, caught a glimpse.
It was a hot air balloon, hanging there in the night sky.
Its running lights weren't on, which was odd. The balloon was higher than us by about a hundred feet, drifting off our starboard bow. The burner came on suddenly, jetting blue flame to heat to air in the balloon's envelope for a few seconds. But I couldn't see anyone at the controls. They must have been set on a clockwork timer. Nobody was moving around in the gondola. It was deep and wide, big enough for a kind of sleeping cabin on one side, and plenty of storage underneath. I couldn't ever recall seeing a balloon this far out. I lifted the speaking tube to my mouth.
"Crow's nest reporting."
*****
Once again, Benjamin woke disorientated. An icy hand laid atop his. But no, it was not the hand that was icy, but his own that was burning.
A cup of water was lifted to his lips, but Benjamin's throat was too stiff to swallow.
"Sorry sir," a voice said. A cloth mopped at his chin.
On closer inspection, Benjamin saw a young boy standing above, looking down at him.
"Did you see them?" he asked the boy. He was not surprised to find his voice scratchy.
"Who?"
"Sailing. All around," Benjamin said haltingly. Finely he was able to swallow. And cough. "Probably always. Been there. Only no one's. Ever. Seen them."
Benjamin struggled to sit up, though it did not really matter. He had no strength.
He swallowed again. "But you. Must've seen them."
"Yes," the boy said. "I saw them too."
"Good." Relief washed away his worry- somebody else knew. He could tell Kate. "Beautiful creatures," he said, smiling and remembering. "They were. Beautiful."
"Yes," said the boy.
Benjamin coughed heavily again.
"I'll get the doctor for you, sir."
Benjamin's hand shot out to catch the boys arm, before he could leave. "Kate. Would've loved them… Don't you. Think?"
"I think so," he said.
Everything is alright, now.
The boy's eyes flickered with. Guilt.
Disgust filled Benjamin's thoughts. "You never. Saw them."
His whole body started to shake of anger and of sickness. Coughs and gasps tossed him over.
Benjamin could not tell that the doctor replaced the boy by his side. His fevered mind could only think of how nobody would ever see those flying creatures again. No. Flashes. White. It wasn't even that nobody would ever see them, though.
Kate. Never would. See.
I promise I will try to post another before I leave for vacation. That means I've got about a week and a half...
I hoped you liked it, though some of it I found harder to write... for some reason or another.
Thanks for all the reviews!